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For federal employees and their families enduring years of frozen pay, a new proposal to cut their pay could not come at a worse time. Those who serve at federal agencies are middle-class workers who never see salaries or bonuses like those on Wall Street. Federal employees have been hurt by the recession just like the rest of America's middle class. They work hard each day in jobs that are frequently high in stress and responsibility but low in pay and benefits. But they know they are making a difference and serving their country.

Key House members have served notice at the Office of Personnel Management that they are concerned about delays in processing and approving full pension payments to federal employees who have filed their retirement papers.

A key House committee reversed President Bush's fifth attempt to give unequal raises to military and civilian employees in a voice vote this week - a decision that the rest of Congress and the president likely will uphold.

The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a 3.1 percent pay raise next year for civil service employees, continuing a long-standing practice of providing a raise equal to that planned for the military.

Today, the United States possesses the most efficient public sector in the world, one whose mission is to execute the public policies of the nation without regard to politics or party, serve and protect the American people, and save taxpayer money.

A bipartisan group of House members plans to send a letter today to the chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee to urge them to support "pay parity" raises next year for civil service and military personnel.

President Bush will propose a 3.1 percent pay raise for members of the armed forces and a 2.3 percent increase for civilian federal employees under the fiscal 2006 budget plan the White House will release on Monday.

President Bush will propose a 3.1 percent pay raise for members of the armed forces and a 2.3 percent increase for civilian federal employees under the fiscal 2006 budget plan the White House will release on Monday.

Ten members of the Washington area delegation plan to send President Bush a letter today urging him to provide equal pay raises for civil service and military personnel in his fiscal 2006 budget proposal that goes to Congress in two weeks.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), one of the architects of today's white-collar pay system for federal workers, told the Bush administration yesterday that he is ready to discuss a different way of setting annual pay raises.

The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year...

Washington-area House lawmakers said Friday that they continue to support military-civilian pay parity, despite recent calls from the Bush administration and a senior congressman on the House Appropriations Committee to hold down the 2005 civil service pay raise.